


Hisashiburi

by Nanibgal



Series: Midoriya Izuku, Son of Loki [1]
Category: Thor (Movies), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: F/M, Footnotes, Loki has been dicking around in different realms since his fall from Asgard, M/M, Most of the MCU was nuked from orbit, Rarepair, The avengers don't exist nor do any superheroes pre-quirk, crack ship, gratuitous footnotes, kink meme de-anon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-08
Updated: 2017-12-17
Packaged: 2019-02-12 02:47:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12949644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanibgal/pseuds/Nanibgal
Summary: From the kink meme: "Izuku’s mysterious, never talked about father? Loki. His father is Loki.. There’s a reason he’s so good at analyzing. Non crack preferable."The Midoriya family is reunited after nearly fifteen years, and a god reconnects with his youngest child.





	1. Summoning a God

Midoriya Inko cried quietly into the phone “I need to warn you- I think something has gone wrong. He’s…I’m so happy for him, all he’s wanted is to be a hero and I…”

She hears a soft sigh from the other line- frustration. He was likely rubbing his eyes and trying to think.

“Inko. Why didn’t you call me the moment you realized he had developed…abilities?”

“I am!” she sobbed, watching the sports festival on TV. “When he said he got into Yuuei, I thought he just…passed a test. Trained hard. He’s such a smart young man, he takes after you…” She flinched away as she watched Endeavor’s son use his powerful ice quirk against her sweet little boy. “I know that you wanted to stay away from us, but I just don’t know what to do!”

Only the sound of his breathing let her know that he hadn’t hung up.

“Listen to me, I never wanted-“

“Oh god that boy just caught fire! Are you watching this?”

Another sigh, louder. “Seeing as I’m not in Midgård at the moment, no. Also seeing as you caught me trying to escape from a dimension-hopping monster, my hands are tied.”

Tissues scattered as Inko stood up and screamed into the phone “Damn it, Loki! I know I’m just a human woman but he is our son, and he needs his father!”

 ~~~

Across dimensions, far from where any mortal had ever wandered, Loki crossed his blade with the claws of a beast. It stood five meters high, an abomination of fur, flesh, and scales. A few of its many eyes had been gouged out by Loki’s knives and one of its three arms lay a stone’s throw away from the rest of it, but it continued its attack anyway.

 Attached to Loki’s ear was a small device he’d acquired from Midgård- he’d been surprised to see a modern invention with Futhark runes on it and ended up tinkering with it until the Bluetooth could connect to different realms and wouldn’t pick up on any background noise. “Inko, I fully intend to go to Midgård as soon as I can.”   Green fire burst from his hand and into the creature’s…face? Most of the eyes were there, so he assumed that was the face. The monster screamed.   “But after fifteen years of keeping the both of you safe, I’m not going to lead any of my enemies to your door. Two weeks, Inko.”

 She was still sniffing and crying loudly, though if the fight was as brutal as she made it sound, he couldn’t blame her for fearing for their son. The human world had become so much more dangerous in the past century, so much so that mortal children were acting like Asgårdian warriors fighting for sport. To think that his youngest son was in the thick of it, cunning and clever. What else had he inherited, aside from the bright green of his father’s eyes? How had he grown? Izuku Midoriya, Izuku Lokeson, what sort of man was he shaping up to be?

 The monster’s claws came dangerously close to his head, clipping the Bluetooth from his ear.

 Oh, did the beast want his full attention?

 “I was on the phone with my wife, you brainless creature. You had your chance to run, now you will face the wrath of a god.”

 On Earth, Inko watched her son be carried out of a stadium on a stretcher. “Loki? Loki?” Silence.

 Having cried herself dry, she hung up the phone and rested her head in her hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I'm sort of making this shit up as I go along. The title 'Hisashiburi' is where 'Hisashi' gets his name, it's an expression that means roughly "It's been a long time" or "long time no see"! It's a little casual, a more formal way to say it is 'Ohisashiburi desu'.
> 
> Loki is gonna be using a lot of Swedish terms and phrases when referring to the nine realms and other Norse-y things. Why not Old Norse or Icelandic? Because I actually know Swedish and I barely get to use it so fuck the haters.
> 
> Also, the Bluetooth symbol is actually a combination of the Younger Furthark (aka Viking Runes) which transliterate more or less to "H" and "B"? It's named for Harald Blåtand (Bluetooth) the Danish king who united various Danish tribes (you know, got them to communicate? Eh? Ehhhh?). AND THEY SAID YOU COULDN'T LEARN ANYTHING FROM THE BNHA KINKMEME.


	2. Viewing an Album

When he returned from the Sports Festival, Midoriya found himself in his crying mother’s tightest hug for a solid minute.

“Izuku,” she said over and over, “Izuku, I was so scared-“

His response was to hug her back and give reassurances, even while his mind was turning with everything he’d learned and recorded from the festival- he still had so much to factor in to his hero data analysis, he still had to work on mastering his quirk to the point where he could actually use it reliably in a fight.

When she squeezed him tighter, he realized he’d been mumbling his thoughts again.

“No more talk of fighting, Izuku. Just…just get cleaned up for dinner, okay? We’re having katsudon to celebrate your big day.”

Of course he’d nodded and smiled. Of course he was excited to tell his mom about his classmates and how he’d do better next time.   He gave her more reassurances that he would stay safe while in the next breath talked about how he couldn’t wait to get back into ‘fighting shape’.

Observant, caring, selfless Midoriya Izuku was for once thinking of himself and so he didn’t notice that his mother’s bowl was cold and untouched by the end of the meal.

~~~

For the next week, Inko went about spot cleaning every last inch of the house- every last piece of furniture was moved and vacuumed under, no corner left undusted, no linen left unwashed.

Of course, with Izuku away on his internship she was alone and so she went into her room and pulled out her wedding album. Almost sixteen years to the day, she realized as her fingers traced over the photos. She had been a little pretty back them hadn’t she? There she was in her white dress, bouquet in hand, next to a man who was and was not her husband. Midoriya Hisashi had an unassuming look to him, handsome and charming enough to be immediately liked by her family and friends but not so much that they would think he was completely out of her league. Only…slightly out of her league.

From her mother: _Oh Inko, it makes me so happy to see you married after all! I was worried, you know, but Midoriya-san seems like a proper gentleman._

From her friends: _Inko-chan, how did you get someone like that to fall for you? No offense, but…_

From her coworker _: You got knocked up, didn’t you?_

As long as they talked about her, they wouldn’t ask about him, because though his lie was very well crafted all lies would eventually crumble under pressure. Where was his family? Killed by a villain, so painful to talk about. Where was he born? In Hokkaido, but spent a lot of time abroad.  He was a consummate liar, after all, and used to brainstorm parts of his ‘back story’ over dinner with her. _The best lies have a grain of truth_ , he’d taught her. So his fictional family had included an older brother, his strange mannerisms explained by a life abroad only just ‘returning’ to Japan.

She turned the pages of the album reverently, not looking at Loki’s disguise very much but instead looking at herself. She really had been quite pretty then, hadn’t she? What sort of things was he going to say to her once he saw her again?

With trembling hands, she shut the book so that her tears would only fall on the cover.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Only cultural note to add here is that so-called "chapel weddings" are becoming more and more popular in Japan. IDK if I'll go into the LokInko wedding (oh dear gods I came up with a couple name for them) but in case I don't there is a tendency to appropriate Christian iconography and even read bible passages for these weddings, even if no one in the place is a Christian (including the minister!). I imagine that their wedding was more secular, if only because Loki didn't want any other god taking the limelight*. So it was more of a civil ceremony with a pretty dress and a nice party.
> 
> *Seriously could you imagine getting married but having some upstart god whose followers converted YOUR followers 1000 years ago or so? LOKI NEITHER FORGOT NOR FORGAVE.
> 
> Also, these chapters are on the shorter side, but they will start to get longer once we get the ball rolling. Remember that this was originally a kinkmeme so chapters were a lot shorter.


	3. Preparing for a Visit

The internship was finished, the hero killer was caught, and yet the most world-changing thing to happen to Midoriya Izuku that week was waiting for him at home, in a simple phrase over dinner.

“Your father is coming home.”

Izuku dropped his chopsticks, his rice still half-chewed in his mouth.

“What? How? _When?”_

His mother’s hands shook as she took a drink of tea. “I asked him to, as I was watching the sports festival. We are both…concerned and he just wants to make sure you’re safe.”

He felt his head spin. He hadn’t remembered seeing the man, hadn’t heard his voice except on tape and a few times on the phone. “Since when does he care about either of us?”

“Your father cares about you very much, Izuku. The reason he…there’s a lot you don’t know about him, a lot we need to explain but you’re…”   His mother folded her hands, not able to look her son in the eye. “You’re not a child. Maybe it wasn’t right to keep you in the dark because I…because _we_ wanted you to be safe.”

 Safe from what? His father was a business man working in abroad. Yes he provided for them, but he hadn’t been around to watch Midoriya grow up like a real father should.

 

_Quirkless, fatherless Deku._

_Maybe your dad isn’t around because he can’t stand looking at a quirkless nerd like you, huh?_

_No, maybe his mom is just a-_

Midoriya had started exactly one fight in his elementary school, and it was before a classmate could finish that sentence.

 

Still, his mind kept whirling as to why his mother would keep any information away from him, what he could possibly be needed to be ‘protected’ from. His fire-breathing quirk never sounded like much, but maybe it was more powerful than he had been lead to believe? That might even be hero-worthy, if he could generate the kind of heat and range that someone like Endeavor or Todoroki-kun could. But Midoriya had worshiped heroes as a kid, why wouldn’t his mother be proud to tell him that Midoriya Hisashi was even a minor hero or sidekick? Why would he need to live so far away? Unless he had some reason to stay away from Japan, if he was in trouble or...

His breath caught in his throat.

 

“Mom. Is he a _villain?”_

 

~~~

The look in his eyes broke Inko’s heart. Years ago, he would have been thrilled that his father was coming home. It used to be the first thing he asked for on his birthday and a wish he made at shrines. Come home, please.

Now even the thought of seeing him seemed to repulse and terrify him. They had waited too long, it was too late, too late…

“It’s more complicated than that.” She offered meekly.

“He’s a villain,” he said with conviction, “all this time I’ve been trying to be a hero and my own father is what all heroes fight.”

“ _Izuku!”_ Why did she have to cry so easily? Her eyes began to water but she sniffed hard until she was able to say, “Not all heroes are like All Might. Some aren’t even called heroes. I can’t let you say those things about him until you’ve heard what he has to say to you. I’m so sorry…”

“Stop.” He stood up from the table. “ _Stop_ apologizing to me. I want answers. I want to know what gives him the right to come into our lives now like he cares what happens to me.”

Inko wanted to, but she didn’t have answers to give. Even she didn’t completely understand why he had to leave, only that he claimed he didn’t want to leave his wife and son. He had left her with a wedding ring, a few objects which looked quite out of place in a typical Japanese home and were thus stored in her closet, and memories which filled her with joy and pain, sometimes at once.

“He will be here tomorrow. I know you’re getting ready for your test and you must be nervous but please, please stay home tomorrow.”

She watched him think and weigh options, he was so painfully like Loki and had no idea.

“Please call the school tomorrow and tell them I’m sick,” he said, “but I’m telling All Might the truth. Excuse me.”

He hurried up to his room and shut the door loudly. Inko stared at their half-eaten meals and sighed, carefully putting the food away.

Time to clean the dishes, she thought, wash the rice for tomorrow. Did she have good tea to offer? Maybe she could try making some of those saffron buns Loki had been fond of, if she had the ingredients…

Her heart was heavy as she rifled through the cupboards looking for saffron, yeast, and other things they only rarely kept in the house, all the while a little angry at herself for having memorized the recipe.

 

~~~

Midoriya pressed ‘dial’ before he could change his mind and waited for two rings before All Might picked up.

“Young Midoriya! Is everything alright?”

“I’m not in any danger, please don’t worry about me, I really hope I’m not bothering you in fact it was kind of dumb of me to think about calling you first but I guess I thought that you should know what’s going on…”

“Not to worry, young Midoriya. I always have time for you, understand? Now, what is the situation?”

Midoriya took a deep breath. He could do this. He wanted to always be truthful with his idol, and All Might could have some good advice, maybe.

“Tomorrow, my mom is going to call the school and tell them I’m sick. I’m not. But my…my father is coming home tomorrow.”

“Oh? Isn’t that…good?”

 _No, because he might or might not be some kind of dangerous person and my mom might have been lying about him all my life._ “It’s complicated. I don’t even remember him, but he’s going to be here tomorrow.”

“Hm.” Midoriya imagined All Might nodding, his hand on his chin. “Well, I am glad that you called me. I understand that you don’t want the rest of the school to know about your family situation, so I will keep this between us.”

“Thank you, All Might-sensei.”

“Is there anything I can do?”

_Other than scold his father for not showing his face for almost fifteen years?_

“No. Thank you, sensei. I think I need to get to bed, it’s all been a bit…”

“Fear not, young Midoriya! No matter what happens, you are a strong young man, a wonderful student, and a brave hero.”

Dammit, now he was so overwhelmed he wanted to cry.

“Thank you, sensei!”

Could Midoriya be blamed for wishing, not for the first time in the past few weeks, that Todoroki-kun was right and All Might really was his father?

~~~

In the cover of night, Loki cleaned his knife off with a rag. “Idiots,” he muttered as he looked back at the six bodies on the ground, “did you honestly think anything less than an army could stop me?” With a snap of his fingers, the corpses vanished into dust. He left the alleyway and straightened his long coat. “That should be the last of…ah, apologies.” He spun and threw the knife between the eyes of a dark elf, who dropped his sword and fell lifeless to the ground.

“That should be the last of them. Now, time to go home.”

 


	4. Encountering a 'Friend'

Midoriya woke up for his morning jog, not about to let his “sick day” get in the way of his training. When exactly was his…was that man supposed to arrive?

As he crept down the stairs, he glanced in the kitchen to see his mother assembling ingredients for a huge meal.

“Izuku!” She said, “oh, did I wake you up? No, that’s right, you usually get up about now. Sorry, I really should have prepared all of this earlier but I just kept putting it off and now I’m doing all the cooking at the last minute and… oh dear, we’re completely out of saffron…”

Midoriya only knew a bit about cooking, but saffron only meant one thing in their house. “You’re making Lussekatter? You only make those in winter.” The Swedish word rolled off his tongue easily, one of the few words he knew in the language (and all of them were names of foods).

“Well, yes, they’re usually for winter but they’re your father’s favorite- at least, they were. We even had them at our wedding, didn’t I tell you that?”

She probably had, back when Izuku actually asked about his father.

“I’ll pick some up at the store.” He said, not wanting his mother to feel even more anxious. “Is there anything else you need?”

“Oh, thank you Izuku! I just need saffron and a packet of yeast, oh and cardamom! You’ll have to go to the foreign import aisle at the supermarket, they don’t carry them at the konbini.”

Izuku committed the ingredients to memory and did some pre-jogging stretches. “Got it. I’ll be back soon- _ittekimasu!”_

_“Itterasshai!”_

 

~~~

 

Midoriya took a different route than usual so he could hit the supermarket on the way back.

“Saffron, yeast, cardamom. Saffron, yeast, cardamom.” He jogged over to the towering Ito-Yokado department store, the first floor of which was a grocery store. No problem, he’d just stop in and…

Shit.

He checked his phone, then checked the store hours sign. The place wouldn’t be open for another hour and if he went back home he’d just have to turn around again. Plus, there was the small chance that _he_ was going to be there early, and the longer Midoriya could put that whole meeting off, the better.

He could at least do some more stretches, maybe do a little shadow-boxing while he waited for the store to open up. It would be better than just sitting around playing games on his phone (or looking up ‘how to confront your absent father’ on google).  

Suddenly, he heard an inhuman shriek and very human laughter from the other side of the store, and he ran to see a group of teens harassing a crow as it was trying to fly off.

“Hey!” He shouted, “Cut that out!”

The three troublemakers turned to look at him- one had a mutant-type quirk which gave him an extra eye on his forehead but he couldn’t see the quirks of the other two.

 “Lay off, we’re not hurting it. Just making it change.”

The bird became a cat, an angry hissing black cat with bright green eyes. An animal with a quirk like Principal Nedzu, then.

“It’s distressed, and it’ll hurt you if you keep scaring it.” He hoped they would just back off without any further confrontation, all he wanted was to get his ingredients and go home. If they provoked him into getting into a fight he might hurt them, and even though he had gotten better control over his quirk he’d still have to deal with property damage, not to mention the fact that he didn’t even have his provisional hero license or supervision from a pro hero…

“You got something to say, say it out loud!” The ring leader’s mouth started to get bright like he was going to breathe fire.  Same quirk as his father.

Midoriya remembered why he was out there in the first place, and it must have shown on his face because the boy with three eyes took a step back.

“It’s not worth it, Tanaka-kun, let’s just go.”

“Yeah,” said the other one in the back, “it’s just a dumb cat-bird-thing. This kid’s giving me the creeps.”

The fire-breather glanced back at them and then gave Midoriya another look. Light from the sun started to shine on him, and that’s when they all recognized him.

“Shit. Shiiiit. He’s from Yuuei, he was on TV!”

“Okay fuck this shit, I’m not fucking with anyone who went toe-to-toe with Endeavor’s son and lived.”

Were they…running away from him? They had literally turned tail (and one of them did have a small tail) and fled once they recognized him. ‘The Kid Who Faced Endeavor’s Son’ wasn’t the hero title he’d been hoping for but he had to start somewhere, right?

Oh, and the cat seemed to be grateful too. It rubbed against him and purred, then turned into a crow again and flapped its wings without taking off. Out of some impulse, Midoriya held out his arm and watched in amazement as the crow perched and preened on his arm.

“Wow. Uh, you’re kind of friendly, aren’t you? Can you…understand me?”

The crow tilted its head inquisitively. Sadly, even with Tokoyami as a classmate Izuku wasn’t fluent in ‘bird’.

“Well, in case you can…my name is Midoriya Izuku. I’m uh…I’m waiting to get some food. I’d offer you some but I’d get in trouble if I was caught feeding a crow so if you’re looking for food you need to turn into something else. Can you turn into other things, like a dog maybe? Or a different bird?”

The creature hopped off his arm and turned into a little black fox before it hit the ground.   Then, it became a snake, a wolf, and a huge komodo dragon.

“Woah! That’s so cool! I wish I could take you home to study you or something, a quirk that versatile is really amazing and you can take so many different forms, I wonder if there are heroes who have animal sidekicks with those kinds of powers, the support team could give something like that equipment to pull off reconnaissance missions as a small animal like a mouse without being detected by villains…”

At the word “mouse”, the dragon became a tiny mouse and tugged on Midoriya’s pantleg with its teeth.

“Uh…do you want me to pick you up? I mean I guess I can…” He picked the mouse up, and then it scampered up his arm and nestled on his shoulder. “I’m not gonna get rid of you, am I?” It was already a weird day, why not add a strangely sentient shape-shifting animal to the mix? “Just stay out of sight, please? I have to go into the store and we’re having… _company_ at home.”

_Squeak, squeak._

So Midoriya spent his time playing video games, looking up “how to confront your absent father”, and checking Hero Watch, all the while his new mouse friend sat on his shoulder, maybe staring at the bright screen or maybe…reading? Just how smart was that thing?

It wasn’t much longer before Ito-Yokado opened up, and the creature turned into a little sparrow and nested in his hair. “Don’t ask,” he said to the tired-looking greeter at the front.

~~~

 

Saffron, yeast, and cardamom in hand, Midoriya and his ‘friend’ headed back to his house. There was no car parked nearby once he approached, but that didn’t mean anything on its own. He could still be there if he took a train or a taxi. Just how long would that man be staying anyway?

For the last leg of the trip, the creature turned into a dog of medium size and trotted along next to Izuku. Absentmindedly, Izuku scratched its head. “Just get small again when we’re home, ‘kay?”

When he opened the door, he called out “ _Tadaima!”_ and started to take off his shoes. His mother walked out from the kitchen with a pink apron over her clothes. _“Okaeri_ Izu- _anata_?!”

 

Midoriya spun around, and instead of an animal there stood a tall man with black hair and bright green eyes, a decidedly foreign man who was a complete stranger to Midoriya and yet his mother addressed him like she would a husband.

 

The foreigner looked at his mother with a smile. “ _Hisashiburi, älskling.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JAPANESE NOTES!
> 
> -Ittekimasu means “I’m leaving and coming back”, more or less. You say it when you leave the house. Itterashai is sort of “please go and come back”. You don’t say these phrases when you are leaving school or saying bye to a friend. You might say something like Ja, mata, which is kind of “see you later”. Saying something like “sayonara” is WAY too formal and gives the impression that you might be gone for a LONG TIME. As in, this is probably the word Loki used when leaving Inko and Izuku.
> 
> -Tadaima is what you say when you return home. In manga it’s usually translated as “I’m home!” but a more literal translation is “right now” (from the full saying tadaima kaerimashita or “I have returned (home) right now”). Okaeri is “Welcome back”, and is paired with Tadaima. As a fun note, when I enter my house I often say “tadaima”, even though I live alone. Why? Because I figure if someone is creeping around they’ll compulsively answer “okaeri”. BUSTED. 
> 
> -konbini are convenience stores but Japanese konbini are cooler than their American counterparts and I like the word better so DEAL WITH IT. I need to fill a learning quota in these things. You can pay bills, buy tickets, and of course buy all the snacks you desire (as well as legit groceries). 
> 
> -Ito-Yokado is a chain of department stores. It’s not uncommon to have a multi-story department store with a grocery store on the first or basement level, followed by clothes, electronics, toys, home furnishings….basically everything. At the top level of the one in my area, there’s a food court and an arcade (with a Boku no Hero Academia game, even!!!).
> 
> -FEEDING CROWS IS ILLEGAL IN TOKYO. I assume it’s also illegal in other large cities in Japan such as “Musutafu”. Basically, the government decided that birds were TOO DAMN SMART to let people just give them food, because then they’d learn ways to manipulate us silly humans. Feeding other birds is fine, I see little old ladies feeding pigeons every now and then but DO NOT FEED THE CROWS.
> 
> -Anata of course means ‘you’ but it’s also common for a wife to call her husband this as a term of endearment. 
> 
> SWEDISH NOTES!  
> -Älskling is Swedish and basically means ‘darling’ or more literally “little love”. “Jag älskar dig” means “I love you”, and älskling has the same root word. It’s for serious couples, not just thrown around lightly (at least, as far as I’ve heard).
> 
> Lussekatter are delicious saffron buns with raisins or currants. They’re usually eaten on St. Lucia’s Day (December 13th), and if I had an oven in my apartment I would totally make them.


	5. Meeting a Father

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last of the chapters that I've uploaded to the BNHA kinkmeme. From here on out, all of the chapters will go here and only here.

Midoriya stood in his own doorway looking back and forth between the two adults. Outside stood the shape-shifting foreigner, and inside his mother, on her knees, in tears.

“Mom, who is this man?”

That man slid past him without so much as an ‘excuse me’ and stood in the genkan, his hand outstretched to Midoriya’s mother.

“Inko,” he said quietly, “I hope that one day you will forgive me.”

She nodded and shakily got to her feet. “Izuku, may I have the groceries? Please just…bring your father to the living room. I’ll be back in a moment.”

“My what?” Izuku stared at the man, who was unlacing his boots and setting them to the side. “What did you do to my mom? Hey, listen to me!” He put his hand on the man’s shoulder to make him turn around, and that’s when he saw the face of Midoriya Hisashi, the same face he’d seen in the photos around his home. Exactly the same face. The man hadn’t aged a day in fifteen years, and Midoriya took a step back as he processed and tried to figure out just how it was possible.

“I don’t understand.”

“I don’t expect you to, not yet. But Inko, tell me- are you making Lussekatter? Truly, I’m flattered you remember.”

His mother looked about ready to cry again. “Of course I remember. Did you really think I would forget _anything_ about you?” She fiddled with her apron. “I was planning to have them ready by the time you got here. Let me put on some tea.” She hurried into the kitchen before either Midoriya or the man claiming to be his father could stop her.

The two men looked at each other, and the visage of Midoriya Hisashi morphed once again into the blindingly handsome foreigner.

“If you would be so kind as to show me the living room, that would be most appreciated.”

Midoriya grit his teeth as he led the way through the small house. The foreigner took time to look around the little space, his very presence making it all seem small. He took a look up at the _kamidana_ high up on the wall, where their home’s kami were housed and given offerings. The foreigner smiled as he looked at the mirrors and stones laying there.

“The gods of Japan are quite interesting, I think. Ask any person on the street if they believe in the gods, your answers are noncommittal at best, especially in this post-quirk world, but yet they still receive their offerings, their rites, their prayers. You’ll find that the gods of old Europe were not so fortunate, despite revival efforts in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Still, _kamidana_ and _butsudan_ are rare to find in modern twenty-second century Japanese homes, are they not? I suppose that’s why no one noticed the strangeness of one particular item your mother chose to keep here.”

Midoriya never paid any thought to the _kamidana_ , except to clean it once in a while, or to pray for luck. His mother once told him that it was special, and showed him a mirror kept there. As a child, he thought that the markings on the back were just strange looking kanji, and even when he was old enough to realize that they weren’t kanji, he assumed that they had some kind of historical significance and didn’t think to question it.

“What does that have to do with anything? Who are you?”

“A better-traveled person might wonder why a talisman on a Japanese _kamidana_ was covered in Norse runes.” The foreigner brazenly plucked the mirror from off of the shrine, without bowing or washing his hands or even _asking for fucking permission from either of the people who lived in the house._

“I gave this to your mother for protection before you were born,” he said by way of explanation. “A mirror engraved with a sigil for protection, so none might think to harm those here.” Midoriya shifted his balance, trying to decide whether to try and take the mirror back or to get the man to stop fucking around.

“Put it back. I don’t have any reason to believe you’re telling the truth.”

“Oh?” The man grinned, infuriatingly smug about something. “Well, you’re smart not to trust me from the outset. Still, though I wish you were able to see the truth of it, it might be a bit much to ask that you know how to read Old Norse. Allow me to make the message clearer.”

He waved his hand over the back of the mirror, then held it out for Midoriya’s inspection. Midoriya took it in two hands and gasped as the writing rearranged itself into Japanese.

**The House of Midoriya shall stand undaunted. All who oppose those who dwell here make themselves the enemies of Loki, and with swift vengeance will their trespasses be met.**

He turned it over in his hand, searching for a contraption or some way to explain how the simple mirror of glass and metal change its inscription. He’d believe it was the man’s quirk if he hadn’t already seen him shape-shift.

“This doesn’t explain anything. Maybe I’m thinking of your quirk all wrong, maybe it goes beyond shape-shifting and has to do more with manipulating the appearance of forms? That would be a _really_ powerful quirk, especially if he could make it appear to just be animal transformations. But what would the limits to that kind of quirk be? He didn’t retain the same weight as a human when he was a mouse, otherwise I would have felt him when he was on my shoulder. Is he actually changing at all, or setting up some sort of elaborate hallucination to make me think that there was an animal around? No, why go through the trouble of making the other kids see the same hallucination? So maybe he IS changing, but-“

“You’ll find,” the stranger cut in, “that giving away your entire thought process puts you at a disadvantage. Still, I understand what Inko said about you taking after me. I don’t _completely_ see it, but…I suppose it is still possible.”

As if summoned, Midoriya’s mother returned with tea for three, which she arranged on the table.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to get to the pastries until later,” she said with her eyes downcast, “I know you were both looking forward to them.”

The man took a seat next to her and waved his hand to dismiss the thought. “Nonsense, _älskling_ , I’ll make them. I’m not so without a heart that I would make you labor in the kitchen. Besides, I imagine Izuku has much to ask the both of us.”

He had the _nerve_ to call Midoriya by his given name. Until he figured out exactly what the man was up to, though, he couldn’t risk fighting and possibly getting his mother caught up in things. With a grumble, he joined them kneeling around the table.

“Okay. Explain. Who are you?”

The stranger raised his eyebrow. “I suppose you honestly want me to spell it out for you? Very well. I am the God of Lies and Chaos, the fallen Prince of Asgård, called Odinson by some. I am husband to Midoriya Inko, and though I once went by the name Midoriya Hisashi, the name with which I was born and with which I shall be known eternally is Loki.”

He took a long drink of tea. When he set down the glass, he looked Midoriya in the eye.

“I have a number of children- the youngest of which is you, Midoriya Izuku. You are my son.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OKAY NAUGHTY CHILDREN IT'S LEARNING TIME
> 
> JAPANESE NOTES:  
> Kamidana are basically home shrines in Japanese houses that house kami (which are complicated to explain but for our purposes we'll say that they're gods, which is mostly accurate) and they are also where you keep special charms that you replace every year. Full disclosure, I have never actually seen one in person, my tiny apartment certainly doesn't have one, and I'm not certain that the Midoriyas have one in canon but I put one in their living room so that Loki could talk about it.  
> Butsudan are home shrines to the Buddha, and according to my students they're more common in the countryside than in the city. I recommend looking up accounts from people who actually have them in their houses.
> 
> Genkan are the little places where you take off your shoes before you enter the house proper.
> 
> SWEDISH/NORSE NOTES:
> 
> NORSE RUNES ARE MY JAM. The Norse liked engraving all kinds of shit for various reasons. Weapons? RUNE IT UP. Giant stones? NEEDS RUNES. Jewelry? VERY NICE BUT HAVE YOU CONSIDERED RUNES? And then what happens when you want runes with your runes? BIND RUNES. Literally stick one rune on top of another rune!!! RUNES EVERYWHERE!!! The Bluetooth logo that I mentioned in one of these before is actually a 'bind rune', which is the combination of runes for different effects. Modern Norse spellcasters use bindrunes for things like good fortune, protection, and stuff like that. A few times I have slyly embroidered runes and sigils like the vegvisir into my clothes.
> 
> ALSO, PATRONYMS!!!! LET'S TALK ABOUT THOSE, BECAUSE LOKI'S NAMES ARE COOL. Loki referred to Izuku as "Lokeson" in the first chapter instead of "Lokison" because the former sounds more natural than the latter, though part of that might be because in Swedish "Loki" is "Loke" (rhyming with "okay" instead of "low key"). Also, although in Marvel Laufey is Loki's father, in actual Norse lore Laufey is the name of Loki's MOTHER, making it a super rare MATRONYM.
> 
> Japanese doesn't have this naming convention, although it is common to have the same kanji character repeat in names! For example, "Hisashi" uses the character 久, which is used in the name "Izuku" 出久. "Ku" can also be written　九, which means "nine" (as in, the 9th wielder of One for All).
> 
>  
> 
> AND WITH THAT, WE ARE CAUGHT UP WITH EVERYTHING I'VE WRITTEN FOR THE KINKMEME.


	6. Chapter 6

Inko knelt on the floor with her back to the kitchen and the two most important people in her life on either side of her. To her right, Izuku stared with his mouth agape, his tea untouched. To her left, Loki sipped the bitter tea as though it was something precious to be savored. That mysterious charm and calm had been part of what made her fall in love with him in the first place, how he seemed to find small things to be of great importance. _Because things you think will last forever might be ripped away from you, sometimes for no other reason than that you had the audacity to enjoy them in the first place._

The two men were nevertheless at an impasse- her son, who usually believed in people and gave others the benefit of the doubt, stubbornly clung to his disbelief while her husband, the very god of trickery whose words were meant to be viewed with suspicion now told the truth.

“Loki is your father,” she said at last, “I’m sorry for lying, Izuku. Midoriya Hisashi was an alias that he used to blend in with ordinary humans.”

“Not that humans are all that ‘ordinary’ these days.” Loki quipped. He’d mentioned that before, how strange to see the rapid evolution of human beings from fragile, helpless creatures to ‘slightly less fragile and infinitely more interesting beings’ (his words). “A scant hundred years ago I would have needed to conceal all my powers, but now I have to pick one with every disguise I create! It’s baffling, though it is rather amusing to see what sort of oddities the human race can produce nowadays.”

Izuku placed his hands on the table.

“So you’re claiming to be some kind of superhuman, a literal god?”

Loki tilted his head and very patiently said, “Yes. Loki, or depending on language and dialect Loke, Lokke…”

“I don’t care what anyone calls you,” Izuku snapped, “because all I see is a man with an illusion quirk claiming to be my father!”

Inko glanced over at Loki, whose grin had grown wide.

“Oh,” he said with a hint of glee, “you don’t believe me, is that it? Well, I suppose if you’ve been around these ‘quirks’ all your life it’s a harder sell than it used to be. But though I deal in tricks, my powers are not to be trifled with.”

Izuku glared from over the table. “I’ve seen you shape shift, and while it’s impressive as a quirk it’s not unheard of to turn into different animals, or even other people. For example, twenty years ago in Canada-“

“Yes, yes, all the little humans have powers of their own. However, they have limits which I do not. A human being can only hold one ‘quirk’, is that not the case?”

“Aside from physical mutations,” Izuku said, not backing down, “or unless there is some sort of link that can connect the two, like Todo…like my classmate, who can produce fire with one side and ice on the other side of his body.”

Loki looked over at Inko. “That was the classmate that Izuku fought when you called me, correct? You mentioned something about fire.”

“Yes, his classmate Todoroki Shouto.” She didn’t understand why Izuku had tried to censor his classmate’s name, did he think that his father had some sort of ill designs against him and his friends? “He’s the son of the current Number Two hero in Japan. When I saw the both of you fight…I just couldn’t stand it, and so I called your father to tell him that something was wrong.”

Izuku looked caught between seething at Loki or focusing on her. “What was wrong? It was a hard fight, but Todoroki-kun and I are better for it. We’re really good friends even!”

“And that’s touching, really it is,” Loki said with a sigh, “but it means that there’s a problem. Izuku, you were never supposed to wield power.”

Her son whipped his head around to glare at Loki. _“Stop calling me by my given name! You don’t have that right!”_ He brought his hand down on the low table and the table and it broke in half.

“Izuku!” She shouted, “what is the _matter_ with you?”

A hand rested on her left shoulder. After fifteen years, it was the touch of her husband.

“ _Älskling_. Don’t fret, let me fix this.” He waved his left hand and the table mended itself, as well as the tea cups which had fallen. “We can’t blame him for acting out- not only is he learning that his father is a much more handsome man than he was lead to believe, he’s also discovering that he’s a demigod.”

While Izuku frantically inspected the table and tested its durability, Loki took her hand in his and pressed a gentle kiss against her knuckles, just as he had so many years ago. Her reaction was still to turn red and stumble over her words.

_“_ A _-anata_! Is that really necessary?”

Loki just smiled and gave her hand another kiss before pressing it against his forehead. “Yes. I can’t help the fact that I was away, but do not doubt that I missed you, both of you, very dearly.”

A pair of hands pushed Loki away from her. Izuku, now on top of the table and glaring daggers at his father, shoved at Loki until he relented with a roll of his eyes. “Very well, I suppose there’s more to discuss. Since you cannot disprove that I am a god, the onus is on me to prove that I am. You have now seen me perform two very different feats which could on their own be considered ‘quirks’, but together could not exist in a normal human being. If you are not convinced, I do have more abilities. Or shall I just swallow a liter of drain cleaner to prove that I am immune to all forms of toxins and poisons? Really, the sooner we can get you over your skepticism the better.”

Izuku put his hand on his chin. “Nomu could keep multiple quirks, but it was really monstrous and didn’t seem really intelligent. If he’s in with the League of Villains, he would have been sent to the USJ with the others to try and kill All Might. So he’s probably not with them. Mom seems to know him, but even if she was under some sort of mind control that would count as another quirk, and it would be more like disrupting all of her memories versus-“

Loki cleared his throat loudly. “Again, revealing your entire thought process is not very clever. This ‘League of Villains’ only interests me insofar as it pertains to you. All Might…oh, isn’t he this hero?” He snapped his fingers and brought a photo into existence. Inko remembered it well- it was the picture of Izuku, age 3, in his All-Might onesie. The picture was in a stainless steel frame.

“Yes!” Inko said, “Oh, you kept the picture! We took that one right before you went away, didn’t we?”

Loki leaned in closer and showed her the picture. “Yes, of course. I kept the others too- behold.” A thin album appeared on the table, and Izuku peered over to look at it.

The official wedding photo was there, the one with the disguise, but also one that they took in secret with Loki wearing his true face. There was a page of pictures of a younger Inko around Tokyo. “I still wished that we took more pictures together,” he said, tracing over a photo that they took in their first house after they got married, “but it was difficult since I couldn’t show my true face around.”

Izuku flipped through the pictures, but found a few pages were stuck together and literally nothing he could do would separate them. Inko wondered what could be in those pages.

“Those would be the photos from the Ryokan at the Arima Onsen, also our first night in the new house, our honeymoon in Hawaii…” Loki trailed off as Inko turned scarlet and snatched the album away, only for Loki to take it back. “You’re very photogenic, my dear. Moving on, I believe I have a few pictures of our young man. Like this one!” He triumphantly showed a picture of Izuku, pacifier in his mouth, sitting on Loki’s lap and wearing a golden helmet with horns coming out the front. “You can’t deny the family resemblance, though I suppose it’s more apparent with the three of us in one photo.”

He flipped to the last page of the book, where a full page spread was dedicated to a picture of the family- it was her, Loki, and their little Izuku looking up at his father with a smile.

Izuku took the album back and carefully studied the pictures.

“This would be…really difficult to fake. These are pictures of me and mom, but you really haven’t aged at all in fifteen years. Even if you were using a quirk to keep yourself looking young, that would be exhausting to keep up. The only question is... where did you get this?”

“Pocket dimension.” Loki said with a shrug. “After a few thousand years of accumulating things, it’s handy to have a place to store whatever I might need, or want protected.”

Izuku nodded. Inko couldn’t tell if he was convinced or not, but at least they could move forward in the conversation. She sighed, relieved.

“Now!” Loki said, clapping his hands together. “I suppose it’s about time we get to the real reason for this visit. Inko told me that you’ve been gaining some of your powers back, which means my spell on you must be weakening. I need to figure out what went wrong so we can seal your powers away for good.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AW SHIT'S GETTING REAL. 
> 
> so first off JAPANESE NOTES:
> 
> Most of y'all know this already but saying someone's given name without any honorifics is a big deal in Japan. It's one of those things that usually people don't mind if foreigners do it because Foreigners, Amirite? but in Midoriya's case he REALLY doesn't like Loki talking to him like family.
> 
> Ryokan are traditional inns that are all over Japan. The Arima Onsen (hot spring) is in Kobe, and is very well known. If a couple goes there it's seen as very romantic *eyebrow waggle*
> 
>  
> 
> LOKI NOTES:  
> Depending on the language, Loki's name was not only Loke but also all those other crazy spellings. 
> 
> Loki's powers are being taken a bit from Norse lore but also from Marvel comics. It's gonna be a little nebulous what his actual abilities and limits are, but he has a wide variety of powers.


	7. Chapter 7

_“I need to figure out what went wrong so we can seal your powers away for good.”_

Midoriya was had questions on the tip of his tongue about ‘pocket dimensions’ and was still trying to think through different scenarios where this Loki person (he wasn’t about to start calling this utter stranger ‘father’).

“Seal my powers away?” He couldn’t be talking about One for All, could he? Even if Loki was being completely honest about being a god and everything, he couldn’t just steal Midoriya’s quirk.

His mother bowed her head to Midoriya, completely silent.

 

_Quirkless Deku!_

The gears turned. He remembered being five years old, two years after his father left for parts unknown, three days after the festival of Shichi-Go-San, sitting in the doctor’s office and hearing the worst news of his life.

 

**_“Can’t I…become a hero too?” “I’m sorry, Izuku! I’m so sorry!”_ **

Those words took on new meaning after hearing what Loki had to say. Thinking back on that one pivotal moment in his life, and those words which had echoed in his head for a decade until they were silenced by the voice of All Might, Midoriya felt his whole body grow numb.

“I thought that you said ‘sorry’ then because you didn’t want to say ‘no’ outright. Do you mean that all this time I had a quirk? And you just…lied to me?”

“I’m sor-“  
“ _I don’t want to hear that from you!”_ He grabbed at his own hair to keep from lashing out at the table again and curled in on himself. “I thought I was weak and worthless for so many years, I was prepared to spend my whole life trying to be a hero without a quirk and…and I had my own this whole time?”

The pictures and the table disappeared, and Loki was within striking distance.

“No,” he said, “you are quirkless. The power flowing through your veins is beyond the mortal world. It is _my_ power, and I refuse to let you carry its burden. You will not be targeted by my enemies so long as they don’t realize who and what you are. Be still, my son.”

Midoriya looked up and stopped. Everything stopped. His mind became heavy in a way that reminded him of his fight with Shinsou, but that time was chaotic and his mind was quick. Now he felt warm, sleepy even. It was like a steaming hot bath after a cold winter day, or leaning against a friend’s shoulder. Uraraka-san had nice shoulders for leaning on, so did Iida-kun. Even Todoroki-kun had nice shoulders to lean his head on, he found out in the hospital while they were watching a movie together…

 

~~~

 

Loki pressed his hand against his son’s forehead and closed his eyes, trying to sense the threads of his spellwork. Magic and runes of power were his to command, and at his touch the dormant power in his son sang out to be wielded, its potential realized. A thin but powerful barrier kept young Izuku from claiming his birthright.

 _Powerful_ , Loki realized, _and_ _unbroken_.

He fell out of his trance and let Izuku flop against his arms, asleep for the moment. He brushed the boy’s messy hair from his face and chanced to look at his dear wife, who hadn’t moved the whole time he was inspecting the spell.

“Something _is_ wrong,” he said, “more than I thought. This power…it is not mine. I know not its root but I will find out who or what did this to him and by the nine I will make them _suffer_.”

Temper, temper. Mustn’t let Inko worry. He breathed deeply to calm himself. “Perhaps we should let him rest, it has been quite the day for him, and for you as well my dear.” He lifted Izuku in his arms. “Show me to his room, will you?”

 

~~~

 

She led her husband through the small home, up the narrow stairs to Izuku’s All-Might themed bedroom. Loki chuckled humorlessly as he took a look around the postered walls and the figurines of varying size and rarity. “I can’t help but feel a bit replaced.” he said as Inko pulled back the covers of the bed.  

She had a few biting words to say, if she had the nerve. If she were brave like her son or clever like her husband, she might say something like ‘He needed a father figure, what else did you expect?’ or even ‘You don’t have the right to be jealous! You left us! You left me to raise our son alone!’ Instead she said nothing and watched as Loki gently placed Izuku down on the bed and stroked his hair again.

“I’ll get started on the Lussekatter.” she said timidly, edging towards the door. “I wasn’t sure how long you wanted to stay, so I prepared a guest room…”

Inko wasn’t prepared for the flash of hurt in his eyes. It made her want to apologize on impulse, but she pressed her lips together tightly. Loki glanced once more at Izuku and then stood up and brushed himself off. “I suppose that’s your kind way of saying that you’d rather I not be here?”

“That’s…no! I mean, where else would you stay?”

“With my wife, of course.” Like it was obvious. Like nearly fifteen years hadn’t gone by with hardly a word between them. Inko’s face grew hot, then she turned and fled downstairs, only for Loki to be waiting there for her in the kitchen. “ _Älskling_ ,” he said, “we have a lot to discuss, I’m sure, but...”

“Aside from Izuku, we don’t. I don’t understand anything- you leave for so long with hardly an explanation and say I have to keep everything secret from him but then,” she started openly sobbing, back to the wall sliding to the floor, “then you show up with your real face and tell Izuku about who you really are and…and you even have a picture album like we mattered to you all along and I just don’t understand?” She covered her eyes and nose with her arm because she knew she was a loud, ugly crier. “Why are you still calling me pet names and kissing my hand? Why are you _mocking_ me?”

She heard him cross the floor and the rustle of his jacket as he knelt beside her.

“Mocking you? Of everyone in the universe, you know when I’m being sincere.”

Inko shook her head. “Maybe for you, twelve years is nothing, or even seventeen years. Loki, that’s nearly half of my life I spent waiting like an idiot for you! Why are you here now that I’m old and fat? I’m not the pretty thing you took a fancy to, and I’m only going to get older.”

With her quirk, she pulled a box of tissues from the kitchen counter to mop up her tears, and when she glanced over hands, Loki was at a rare loss for words. His eyes were wide and his hands clasped tightly together. The sight was completely unchanged from that day when he first told her the truth about his existence, and the heartbreaking fragments of his story which brought him to the mortal world in the first place.

“Forgive me.” He said at last. “You’re right. It appears I lied to myself this time- I swear my intentions were pure but I did abandon you, didn’t I?”

Did Loki have the power to turn back time and redo the past, and make up for all the lost time? Couldn’t their family be saved after all?

“We need to talk to Izuku,” she said with as much finality as she could muster, “when he wakes up, we need to talk to him and figure out what we will do from here.”

 

“I never forgot you.”

Loki extended his hand to her. “I never lied to you about how I feel, Inko. I might have lost your love, but though evidence points to the contrary you never lost mine. I want to ask for the chance to earn your heart again.”

 

Trembling, Inko slid her hand into his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> JAPANESE NOTES  
> Shichi-go-san: Literally “7-5-3”, this is a holiday that takes place in November. The numbers 7, 5, and 3 are fortuitous ages, so girls who have turned 7 or 3 and boys who have turned five (although it’s not unheard of for boys who have turned 3) get to dress up in adorable traditional Japanese clothes and the whole family goes to a shrine to pray for their good health and good luck. Since Midoriya and Bakugo turned 5 in the same year and were such good friends, I headcanon that both families (sans Loki in this case, but maybe Hisashi in canon) dressed in traditional clothes and went to the shrine together. This was also probably the last time that they had a nice, cute picture before Bakugo found out that Midoriya was quirkless.  
> In department stores you get to see the most ADORABLE little displays of traditional clothes for little kids. Since these are only worn once, it’s common to just rent them. For some people, this is the only time that they wear wafuku (the catch-all term for traditional Japanese clothing). I HAVE YET TO SEE ANYONE ILLUSTRATE TINY!HEROS CELEBRATING SHICHI-GO-SAN AND THIS IS A CRIME.
> 
> As far as names go, I’m going to pretty much have people refer to each other the same way they do in the anime/Japanese version of the manga. So if Midoriya is the POV character, it’s gonna be “Todoroki-kun”, “Uraraka-san”, etc. 
> 
> ZODIAC NOTES:   
> When double checking their birthdays to make sure they would have celebrated Shichi-go-san together, I found out that Midoriya Izuku, like Tsukino Usagi, Karkat Vantas, and yours truly, is a Cancer! Todoroki and Uraraka are Capricorns, and Bakugo is an Aries to the surprise of ABSOLUTELY NO ONE. I could go down the line like the ABSOLUTE HOMESTUCK TRASH THAT I AM and I probably will but NOT TODAY.
> 
> AUTHOR NOTES:  
> So! Some of you have been picking up on the fact that I have an approximate knowledge of many things involving Japan, Sweden, and general Norse things. Though I am neither Swedish nor Japanese, I started teaching myself Swedish when I was 15 and I am currently living in Japan and working as an English teacher. The main reason I got into BNHA in the first place is because I’m studying Japanese and learning with manga is fun. Also, I practice a form of Norse Paganism, hence the rune knowledge and all that. The primary god of my devotion is Thor himself, so I get asked about the movies a lot XD. I am taking many liberties in creating a hybrid Marvel-Lore Loki but I sort of see Marvel!Loki and Marvel!Thor the same way I would look at any fictional portrayal of a historical figure? It’s complicated, but eh.


	8. Chapter 8

Todoroki-kun had such nice shoulders and soft, fluffy hair. Midoriya smiled and pressed another kiss to his lips, until at last Todoroki-kun’s eyes opened and he whispered to Midoriya,

 

“Who is this ‘Todoroki-kun’ to you?”

 

Midoriya shot up from his nap and found Loki sitting on his bed, inspecting a limited edition All Might action figure with his Silver Age costume.

“Well?” Loki sent the toy floating back to its place on Midoriya’s shelf. “I’ve been here a few hours and yet Todoroki Shouto has been mentioned a few times, mostly by you as you drooled into your pillow.”

He wiped his face frantically and leveled a deadly glare at Loki. “What are you still doing here? Wait, did you-“ he called upon the power of One for All, and without fail the lines of light appeared on his hands. “You didn’t steal my powers.”

Loki narrowed his eyes at the manifestation of Midoriya’s quirk. “No,” he said tersely, “it appears that it is not my power to take. My gifts remain sealed inside you, but you found your way around that somehow, clever boy.” He stood and swept across the room dramatically to inspect more of Midoriya’s All Might merchandise. Midoriya gulped. Could this man, this god, figure out the bond between him and All Might? It might be best to just drop it so he wouldn’t ask more questions. What wasn’t Loki’s power to take also wasn’t his secret to know.

“Where is my mother?”

“Finishing the Lussekatter. It will be a few minutes still, but I thought I might wake you. Forgive me for intruding on dreams of your lover.”

“Eh?!” The dream flooded back to him- Todoroki’s pretty face and delicate breaths, his soft looking lips… “No, he’s just my friend from school!”

Loki raised an eyebrow knowingly. “Oh yes, and I’m your hero All Might. Regardless, your mother and I worked very hard on the Lussekatter and I’d rather we not let them get cold. Please come downstairs after you’ve made yourself presentable.”

Midoriya didn’t even have the chance to sputter a response before Loki teleported out of the room.

“The door was _right behind him_.” Midoriya muttered as he changed out of his jogging clothes (ugh, he had actually slept covered in sweat).   He glanced in a small mirror on the wall to make sure his hair was in place, but then took a longer look at his face. He had always considered himself to be a typical Japanese kid, but if Loki was really his father, wouldn’t that make him mixed? Even though Loki claimed to be a god, he certainly looked European and something would have passed on to Midoriya- nose shape, cheekbones, something. His eyes were a bit greener than his mom’s, so maybe that? Though that didn’t take into account the possibility that Midoriya had been conceived while Loki was disguised as Hisashi and-

He derailed that train of thought like the Nomu that attacked the Shinkansen. Nope, he no longer cared about his racial identity if it meant thinking about his mom and that man…Gross, no, terminate brain functions immediately.

With a final shake of his head, he went downstairs to join his mom and Loki around the kitchen table.

~~~

 

Ever since Izuku got accepted into Yuuei, Inko had started using her quirk around the house regularly again. It was a bit of a relief to just bring objects to her rather than reach high shelves or leave a pot unattended to grab an ingredient she left on the other side of the counter. She wasn’t used to how open Loki was with his powers, preferring to direct the ingredients to measure themselves at Inko’s direction. He really was bent on her not lifting a finger, though he didn’t seem to want to either.

He seemed much more content to get used to the feeling of holding her hand.

 

When Loki reappeared a the kitchen table, Inko gasped in shock but didn’t shriek like she used to. He laughed quietly and without malice, but it didn’t stop her from hiding her face in her hands again.

“You still delight in making me jump out of my skin, do you?”

“As much as I delight in making you blush, _käraste_.” He taunted her with his other favorite pet name, which never failed to make her stutter because the way he rolled his ‘r’ was absolutely criminal. “Our son will be down here shortly.”

Inko nodded at him and then slowly had the tray piled high with Lussekatter float to them. “You can call him Izuku, you know,” she said, “it’s a lot for him, but he’ll come around.”

The smile vanished from Loki’s face, leaving something more solemn and contemplative. “He has the right to withhold the privilege from me. I of all people know the importance of names, and I’ll not trample on his wishes.” He reached for her hand again, never taking it but always just an offer for her to accept or reject. She accepted. “I delight in the fact that you still call me ‘ _anata’_ , by the way. It’s…I was happy that your mind went to that word when I first arrived.”

“Well, yes. You are still my husband, after all.”

“I am.”

Inko gave his hand a gentle squeeze as she heard Izuku on the stairs. “ _Anata_.”

 

~~~

 

It was the most awkward thing in the world for Midoriya to see his mother holding Loki’s hand and looking into his eyes. He cleared his throat loudly and his mother turned her attention away. He only saw the back of Loki’s head, yet he was 99% sure that the man was rolling his eyes.

Midoriya pulled out a chair and sat down. “I guess I was out for a while,” he side-eyed Loki, “if the yeast had time to rise and everything.”

“So it worked out in the end,” Loki said while daintily picking up a bun, “since you got to wake up refreshed from a pleasant dream to hot Lussekatter. You’re quite welcome.”

Control the quirk. Bakugo didn’t get Midoriya this riled up so quickly, and he wasn’t going to let Loki get under his skin. Breathe in through the nose and out through the nose.

“I’m going to try and move past the fact that you attempted to steal my quirk. I am going to try really, really hard to believe that you’re not lying through your teeth and you really are my biological father. So now, time to answer some questions.”

Loki took his time on the first Lussekatter, mulling over his thoughts.

“Very well. I normally would insist in a trade of secrets, but…” he reached for another pastry. “Well, considering the circumstances. Though there are some questions I might not be able to answer to your satisfaction.”

Midoriya nodded. It suddenly felt like there was a chessboard between them, not a tray of pastries. His mother kept looking between the both of them, like she wasn’t sure who needed more of her attention.

He took a deep breath.

 

“Why did you leave?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SWEDISH NOTES:
> 
> Käraste (pronounces SHAH-ra-stey) is like “darling”. It’s really cute and my prefered pet name. In case you’re wondering, ladies *winkwink* 
> 
> JAPANESE NOTES:
> 
> Shinkansen: Bullet Train. They’re really cool. I took a Shinkansen to Kyoto from Tokyo on vacation when my family came to visit me, and we actually sat in one of the first class “Green Cars”, which was pretty sweet. Traveling in style.


	9. Telling a Tale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @woah I AM SO SORRY I THINK I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED YOUR COMMENT WHEN I WAS ON MOBILE AND I COULDN'T GET IT BACK I AM SO, SO SORRY I PRAY THAT YOU FORGIVE ME I REALLY LOVED IT AND I'M SUPER GLAD THAT IT'S STILL ON MY EMAIL. 
> 
> You wrote: " this is really cute ???? and i like how theres like both swedish and japanese culture aah thats really cool :0 im really enjoying this fanfic--its really unique too bc i never would have imagined loki x inko (loko ? inki ? idk) but this is good
> 
> also does thor ever make an appearance or is that too much of a spoiler ? im excited to read the next chapter (dont worry about quick updates tho like update whenever u have time and motivation) !! : ) "
> 
> To answer, THANK YOU SO SO MUCH YOU ARE REALLY NICE. I use the pairing name LokInko because I love it when names match up like that and their names are a letter off from each other? and its? cute???  
> re: Thor...It's still being decided, actually!
> 
> THANKS AGAIN FOR EVERYONE'S COMMENTS, I HOPE Y'ALL STICK AROUND FOR THE NEXT INSTALLMENTS OF THIS FIC SERIES

“Why did I leave?” Loki repeated, leaning back in the chair as though it were his throne. “I have been alive for around two-thousand of your Earth years. That is plenty of time to make enemies, and no matter how carefully I kept up my disguise I would have eventually been discovered, you and your mother put in danger.”

Midoriya hadn’t touched the pastries and he wasn’t sure he could stomach them. “That doesn’t make sense. Why would you stop and settle down for a few years, have a baby even, if you knew you were being followed? You were in Japan for at least five years-“

“Closer to ten, but yes.”

“-so you put my mom in danger just by being near her.”

His mom nibbled on a saffron bun.

Loki shrugged carelessly. “I had been keeping my head down for over a century, while the human race started changing dramatically around me. I had honestly thought that I was well hidden and that my foes thought me long dead.”

He bit down on his lip to keep from mumbling. The story still wasn’t clear, and Loki didn’t seem willing to just tell him outright. He just needed to keep chipping away, prodding his story for any weak points, like some kind of interrogation.

“What happened to change your mind? You were here for ten years, created a fake identity, were starting a family, that’s not the kind of thing a man on the run does.” Not if he cares even a little about the family he’s leaving behind, he thought.

Loki mulled over his next words. “I was given a rather cruel reminder.”

~~~

_Twelve and a half years ago, under the guise of Midoriya Hisashi, Loki had been in the park with Izuku. He watched him play with a loud toddler with pale blonde hair, and though Loki found that the brat wasn’t showing his son the respect he deserved, it was good for Izuku to form bonds with children his age._

_Through the corners of his eyes he took stock of everyone else in the park- the blond’s parents were sitting on a bench not far from him, and gave him a parental nod of solidarity, which Loki returned. There were some older children with yellow hats on the swings, unsupervised, and a few more practicing their quirks by a slide. People walked by the park, going about their business and looking at their phones. Loki was about to give Inko a call when it happened._

_A giant among giants, a monstrous jötunn appeared from a hole in the ground not two meters from where the boys were playing._

_Panic ensued, with children fleeing and the other parents rushing to grab both boys and bring them to safety, with Loki standing between them and the giant. “Take them!”_

_“Papa!” Izuku sobbed as the family ran out of the park. “Papa, no!”_

_Loki, as Hisashi, took a deep breath and exhaled a torrent of flames at the monster. The jötunn roared, its icy skin hissed and steamed._

_Loki didn’t have to defeat the beast, he tried to remind himself, just stall it until the ‘heroes’ arrived, and make sure Izuku was safe._

_Enraged, the jötunn took a swing at him, and when he dodged that another. He was loathe to say that it was no lumbering beast, and with Loki hampering his own powers it managed to get a good hit in and pin him to the ground._

_“What is this?” The jötunn spoke in a language not heard in Midgård for over a thousand years. “Prince Loki, still alive after all, and crawling amongst mortals like a worm. Perhaps there was good to be gained from being magicked here- our king will reward me handsomely for your corpse.”_

_Loki proceeded to spit fire directly into its eyes._

_While it shielded its eyes and howled in agony, Loki fixed his glamour and rose to his feet in one smooth action. “Leave the mid-battle gloating to those with the skill to back it. It will not be my corpse which your king must collect.”_

~~~

 

“I would have let the creature live,” he confessed, “but if he had managed to return to the King of Jötenheim with news of me, the jötnar would have torn apart Musutafa, if not all of Japan.”

 

Midoriya ran through what he wanted to address first- that Loki had saved him and the Bakugo family, that he just admitted to murdering someone, that no one noticed an ordinary civilian fighting a monster, or that somehow said monster was from a place that somehow was able to travel to Earth and Loki had apparently pissed off their ruler enough to warrant a search-and-destroy of an entire city or more.

 

“Eventually, you will stop giving away your planning in the form of prattle,” Loki said flippantly, “but allow me to save you some time and answer right away. Jötenheim and Asgård, from whence I hail, were at war for centuries and though last time I checked they are technically at peace, relations between the two worlds has always been…tense, and skrimishes have broken out over my lifetime. I fear that as such a formidable opponent, I did not exactly endear myself to them.

“How one was able to appear in Midgård, I know not. Even after these years traveling between worlds, I’m not entirely sure. Jötenheim was sealed away, the bridge between it and the other realms destroyed, and there are few who can traverse the liminal spaces as easily as I.”

Midoriya turned to his mother.

“I didn’t see it all happen,” she confessed, “you both went to the park. I came running when I heard the fight start, but I ran into the Bakugo family first. You were in tears and they told me what was happening- of course I knew your father would be fine, but I couldn’t help but worry...”

 _The Bakugo family_ …just like Midoriya, Kacchan would have been too young to remember everything, but his parents wouldn’t have forgotten. He stuffed his face with Lussekatter and chewed methodically so he wouldn’t accidentally start talking. How could he talk with Kacchan’s parents without fear that their son would find out? Okay, he’d put that on a ‘to-do’ list of ‘things to fact check now that a strange man who claims to be both a god and Midoriya’s father is sitting in his house’.

“So is dimension-travel one of those ‘powers’ you say are ‘locked away’ in me?” He wanted to change the subject before Loki could figure out what he was thinking. “What kinds of powers are you saying I have?”

Loki twirled his finger around to show off a bit of green fire at its tip. “Not specific powers, mind you, just the ability to harness and wield magic as I do. It’s a moot point, since I’m not undoing my spell. That is final.”

“I think,” his mother said with a soft voice, “that you should undo it.”

~~~

 

“No.” Loki said, eyes flashing. “I will not hear any more of this. I don’t understand how Izuku obtained a quirk in the first place, and I intend to get to the bottom of that, but as for undoing my spellwork? I think not.”

Inko bowed her head and pressed her hands together. “Loki, please- the situations he’ll be in are going to be even more perilous, any kind of power he has will protect him, and while you’re here you can teach him. You’ve had to miss out on so much of his life. Japan might not be a grand place like the other realms, and I know there are probably places you’d rather be, but wouldn’t raising your son be its own reward?” Inko looked at Izuku. “It’s not anything against you, but he _is_ a god and there are probably things that we just don’t understand…”

“Inko.” Loki held his hand up for silence, then rested his head against his hands.   “Did you honestly…by the nine why do you think I stayed away for so long? Do you think I was going on grand adventures this whole time, ignoring my role as a father?”

She ducked her head, unable to lie and say the thought hadn’t crossed her mind a few thousand times. What could she possibly offer a beautiful, powerful immortal? She wasn’t made for grand epics, she was happy as a housewife and a mother and didn’t need much more than that. Loki simply was _more_. She let him go without a fight because why would someone like him want to be tied down to someone so painfully _ordinary?_

The room became darker and the air heavier, and though her first instinct was to shield Izuku she couldn’t imagine Loki actually lashing out against them. Could he? Had he changed so much?

“I _could_ give Izuku his birthright,” Loki hissed through his teeth, “I _could_ undo my spellwork and let him join the great pantheon of his brothers and sisters, gods and demigods all. His eldest brother is a mighty wolf named Fenrir, so powerful a creature that his own grandfather fears him and keeps him bound in a cave with magic chains. Then there is his brother Jörmungandr, a mighty serpent who was cast from Asgård to the seas of Midgård, forced to keep hold of his own tail as he encircles the Earth. Perhaps he would like to join his eldest sister, Hel? She too was cast from the realm of the gods for her power and appearance and hers is the hall of the dead. Angrboða, their mother and my first love, died horribly in a skirmish between Asgård and Jötenheim.”   Drops of red started to fall on the table from where he was clenching his fist and digging his nails into the palm of his hand.

Almost worse than seeing him in pain was that she had _known_ those stories- heavily translated and altered versions at least. The names Fenrir, Jörmungandr, and Hel were familiar to her but she thought it was some sort of fantastical embellishment and never thought to really ask him.

“Forgive me, I didn’t mean…”

“They were not my only three children before him. Many of them lived mortal lives and died. Some were slain. Do you have any idea what it’s like to _bury your child_ , Inko?”

Through all this, their son had remained silent- watching. Listening. At that moment, Izuku put his hand over his mother’s and looked Loki in the eye.

“I don’t want my mom to suffer, and it sounds like you don’t either.” His voice was soft, yet steady and resolute. “I’m still not sure what to think about you, but I’m sorry you’ve been through so much pain. I can’t imagine losing so many people you care about over so many years, or having to leave your home. I wish that someone could have helped you back then.”

 

Izuku put his left hand on top of Loki’s bleeding fist.

 

“But the fact that there are people in this world that need help is why I’m going to become a hero. If you know a way to help me be stronger so that I can save more people, then I need all the help I can get. If not, I’ll do it with my own power.”

 

Loki did not take his eyes off of Izuku’s hand.

“I suppose it’s a little commendable that you were able to seize power for your own despite my limitations on you. I would dismiss your lofty notions of nobility as childish, but…”

He looks at Inko again, and she takes his other hand in hers. “Izuku is a cool hero, anata. There wasn’t anything we could do to stop him. So…let’s make it different now and do our best to help him, okay?”

 

Loki vanished.

 

He reappeared by the oven, dressed in his battle armor and holding his golden helmet, a marvelous green cape cascading behind him.

“I shall consider this,” he said, “but unlocking your full potential is dangerous and I am the only one who can teach you. I would have to live here again, watch you carefully, and train you in the arcane arts.”

Izuku stood up, and looked his father in the eyes. “I’m still not sure if you’re more of a hero or a villain, but I want to have every tool at my disposal.”

“Very well. In that case, I will remain here on Midgård and become Midoriya Hisashi once more.” He turned to Inko. “With the permission of my wife, of course.”

She nodded, on the verge of tears once more.

 

_“Okaeri, anata.”_

_“Tadaima, älskling.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yes, I've decided to make this the first part of a series of fics. I was not expecting this much love and I have lots of ideas to kick around. Please continue to let me know what you all think.  
> That being said...
> 
> HAPPY HOLIDAYS FELLOW SINNERS, READY TO LEARN?
> 
> Okay so a lot of this is old news for people into Norse mythology but for those who want a look at Loki’s family tree let’s get ready for some LOKI/NORSE LORE NOTES:
> 
> ð is pronounced with a hard voiced “th” sound, like in “that” (as opposed to “thin” or “Thor”, which is þ).  
> SO, A THING ABOUT JÖTNAR (plural of ‘jötunn’). First off, using the Old Norse instead of the Swedish because the Swedish word “jätte” these days means “great” or “really big” and is closer to how we might describe a real, well, giant. Jötnar were not necessarily huge monsters. Some were even said to be exceptionally beautiful. Basically YMMV, they could be anything from horrific nightmares to glamorous and humanoid to being straight up animal shaped like Fenrir and Jörmungandr. My Swedish friends described them as being more “great in power” than in actual stature.  
> Loki is canonically bisexual and even a bit genderfluid in Marvel comics (for serious, Odin straight up refers to Loki as his “child who is a bit of both [genders]”), but that all gets dialed up to 11 in the actual lore. In the modern day, there is a sizable number of queer pagans who worship Loki for that reason.
> 
> In Viking days, women were considered rulers of the home and had the keys to the house. They could lock their husbands outside, hence why Loki asks Inko’s permission to stay.
> 
> Loki: on the verge of having a tender moment with his family  
> Loki: vanishes for a quick change in order to be dramatic


End file.
